Friday, August 15, 2008

I always set the backpack down on a green patch in the otherwise wood-chip floored park. Three play areas comprise this park, our nearest, the one Erin screams "Whee!!!!" at every time we walk or drive close by. One area is a for the swings, where Erin had her first swing on a swing; this area remains our first stop every time we go. It just isn't the park if we don't begin with a "Whee!!"

Another area has a low jungle gym. A narrow staircase there has helped teach her one-footed surety; a plastic bridge has given her sea legs. There are two slides, one short and straight and steel; the other long, a plastic purple tube. Erin always eschewed the slides. Timid? Probably not. She only fears vacuum cleaners. This day was no different, however. After a few stair drills and bridge crossings, she was bored. She climbed down and headed over to the last area.

This area is home to the tall jungle gym. Designed for older pre-schoolers and younger elementary school children, this apparatus has many tempting openings in the railings that lead to 6 to 10 foot falls to the chip floor below. As usual, Erin went for the stairs, and climbed her way to the top, taking her time and crawling through tunnels of opportunity.

A child approached her on the stairs. A boy-child. 5 years old? 6? Hard to tell under the massive helmet he was wearing. "She can't be on this one. She have to be on the other one. No babies allowed on this one. The other one is for babies. Her have to go."

Erin ignored him. I listened to him, then said in a tone that covered my irritation that a little punk wearing a helmet on the jungle gym would try to get her to clear off, ostensibly for her safety but really because he didn't like a 15 month old showing him up with her mad jungle-gymming skillz: "Well, she seems to be doing okay for herself here."

Punk. Go tell your mom that your helmet is squeezing your brains out.

Erin passed him on the stairs, as did I. And when I turned around he was gone. As though he had always and only been an avatar of my parental conscience: "Your kid should be wearing a helmet, dad; your kid should be on a lower, safer, jungle gym; your kid should be....hey! Where's your kid??"

Erin was already at the tall, 10' slides, watching some older boys slide down then climb up. Over and over. I could tell she wanted to try these slides, even though she had never shown any interest in the slides on the "baby jungle gym". She held the bars, and then stepped forward until her feet came out from underneath her. And she hung, demonstrating her awesome upper-body strength for the weak-ass boys at the bottom of the slide. Then she dropped and slid to the bottom.

Back to the stairs, back up the stairs, this time free of punk kids telling her to stay off the jungle gym. Back to the insanely tall slide (she's 15 months old, folks; it's like 7 times her height): grip, step, hang, drop, "whee!!"

And the boys were applauding her at the bottom of the slide this time.

34 comments:

Erin's so going to conquer the world! I just hope she does so without breaking any bones along the way.

We went to the park today. The kids shooting air pistols around the play equipment my unarmed kids wanted to play on, too, thought the sign at the park entrance read "Mouthy, Ignorant, Smelly, Think They're So Big and Important, Watch Them Puff Up Their Scrawny Chest's Park". They were wrong. Because I wanted to go down the slide, too.

(I'm here with no comments, but I'll probably click this and be fourth...)

I let my so go on the "big kid" stuff when he was little. He was (and is) fearless. I didn't want to let my nervousness slow him down or put fear in his mind. He gives me a heart attack almost every time we go to the park. Congrats to Erin! Next, the Fireman's Pole.

she sounds just like mariah was... a fearless climber from the moment she could walk... people used to freak out at me, how could i let her go so high, *how old is she???, etc-- and i just had to smile and say, "she's got it", like you. here's to raising amazing girls and watching them turn into strong women!

That helmet kid obviously had issues. Did you yell, "At 5 or 6 you should really know proper promoun and verb usage, dumbass!! Why don't you go get some freakin' grammar skills and then we can talk?!?"

I would have.

P.S. You're screwed now that she's discovered the slides. I can't keep my 15 month old off of them.

Seen your comment over at her bad mother about the Canadian thing. I feel the same way as alot of the people leaving comments about it. Sounds like your little one can show those boys a thing or two ! Well maybe with the helmet on he wouldn't see what was going on anyway !

I love how fearless they are when they are that age, letting nothing stop them. I always figured my job was only to show Pumpkinpie how to scale those ladders one foot after another, knee first at the top, not to tell her they were not for her. Hopefully that weenie was wearing a helmet because he rode over on his bike...

I took my nieces to a playgorund last week that had one of those fireman pole things. Oh man, the heart attack I nearly had when one of them ran straight over to that thing. It was an 8 foot drop and no way could she hold onto the pole and slide down without falling. We won't be going back to that one.

PS-Mom Brag alert: My 10 year old is very tiny, played on a "fun girls" basketball league last year, supposed to be not competitive. Girls on the other team were taunting, said "Is your team a MIDGET team, some of the players are so SHORT" kind of crappy girl stuff. My daughter spun around and went up to the biggest girl and said:"Are you LOOKING IN A MIRROR? Cuz I know you're not talking to ME!"*Sigh* 4th grade Catholic school girls basketball league smack down! Thought Erin would like thatstory. Sorry it's long.

mrs. schmitty: from experience, I think girls also, in fact, drool. at least when they're smaller.

jenni: no one puts Baby in the corner.

rattling the kettle: no, since he was wearing a helmet I really should have kicked him in the nads.

jennifer: let's just hope she can always ignore that stuff.

anna: thank you.

redneck mommy: cute boys? yeah, they're going to have to be cute, smart, polite, funny, and responsible. Or just very very sneaky.

crazy mumma: they're like monkeys

merecat: just start hurling them down the slide and see if they would rather do it on their own :}

bejewell: my captcha?? what the hell is that? I have nothing to do with that.

mamatulip: I don't know what you're talking about.

fear and parenting: she's going to rock the vault.

issas crazy world: made sense to me.

jerri annq: word

jenn: I'm still not sure where his parents were.

fiesty charlie: me too :}

tootsie farklepants: why thank you :}

kittenpie: oh, god, I'm not ready for laddres. But I think she is.

mamadance: :}

anissa mayhew: seriously. came close.

tracey: I can't wait.

heather: first, you said "pole". Second, I think she'd be okay on one of those. As I said, she has wicked upper body strength.

michelle lamar: that's awesome. I hope Erin does the same thing if ever confronted with that kind of taunting. And then I hope she says "where is your dad? I want to give him a piece of my mind for not playing with you enough when you were a baby."